Hey all!
I’ve been enjoying the hell out of running BITD, and I believe my gang of Shadows (The Ebon Silence) will soon be howling for the blood of the Billhooks.
They are currently Tier 1, and I am wondering some ways you would handle them attempting to completely wipe out a Tier 2 faction like the Billhooks…I’ve got their motivation for doing so in the works, I’m talking the during and the aftermath…
I KNOW this has to have been discussed before on here, but I can’t seem to find the right keywords to search for it…:-(
L-
Poison them and burn their HQ down.
Something that would scare/piss off a bunch of other Factions and bring a lot of heat.
Have the players pull a score that exploits one of the Billhook’s vulnerabilities to reduce their hold/tier. If the players don’t know any the Billhooks vulnerabilities, then they can gather information, and or run a score in order find out (depending on how hard you want to make it). Continue until the billhooks are reduced to Tier 0 with Weak Hold. Then have them execute a score to wipe them off the map.
In a game I ran the crew beat the shit out of a Billhook extortionist and his men to claim a piece of Turf. Naturally, this caused friction with the Billhooks. The PCs decided to parlay at the Billhook HQ as a score.
The engagement roll was Risky and things started to get even more precarious. The crew did a series of very cool and extremely clever flashbacks that went very well:
-The Spider exploited the rift in the Billhook leadership, making a deal to off Tarvil and his son, as well as smash any of their loyal followers. A very lucky Fortune roll allowed this.
-The +2 faction status with the Crows was exploited and they agreed to lend forces to the score provided they get both a piece of Turf and an alliance with the Billhooks.
-The Lurk snuck in prior and set up in the rafters with the crew’s weapons and Sam Fisher’d the fuck out Tarvil’s son after dropping the bag o’ pain onto the table.
-One of the Hounds went to jail on purpose and, with the help of their Ironhook contacts, murdered Tarvil, the Billhook leader. The crit on the prison roll helped, too. They spent the rep bonuses on Ironhook and the the Billhooks.
As mentioned, these went very well. The Crows attacking set it off and as the Billhooks were dealing with the Crows, the secure meeting room at the HQ turned into a bloodbath.
This didn’t destroy the Billhooks, but it absolutely brought them to heel as well as made them allies. It was fucking awesome.
These are some great ideas! Thank you!
Also, funnily enough, the poisoning idea is already being considered by the Leech without me mentioning a damned thing!